I've Moved!

My original plans were to keep this site on Blogger. However, after using Squarespace, Blogger just won't cut it for me anymore. Therefore, I have made the content of this site a section of astarkmagazine. The new URL for my blog is now astarkmagazine.com/blog. Click on RSS in the sidebar to view my blog's RSS feeds. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Now I can't seem to get this post to publish, making it all that more sweet to be leaving Blogger.

On Mac OS X RSS Readers

Until recently, all of my attempts to enjoy RSS feeds had been in vain. RSS seemed like one of those hip technologies that people use simply to feel superior to those who don't use them. However, I had it all wrong. I just wasn't using the right software.

I tried Bloglines to manage my feeds, but I found it clunky (and--don't tell anyone I said so--ugly). I also tried the Sage extension for Firefox. It was also clunky and ugly. Plus, I've stopped using Firefox altogether (you guessed it, clunky and ugly).

Anyway, I decided to give RSS feeds another try, and I downloaded pretty much every single standalone RSS feed reader available for Mac OS X. (I have no need for one based online, since I use only one computer.)

To be truthful, I didn't like most of them, especially Newsfire, which I would have blown up if that were possible. The free trial had a frequent pop-up that would remind me that I hadn't paid for it yet, and I never will simply because of that ridiculous reminder. Listen, Newsfire people, that is one of the stupidest things you can do with a small program like Newsfire. In a free trial, you want people to think that your software is useful, not an annoying program made by annoying people. It would be one thing if you didn't have competition, but you do. Good riddance!

There were three feed readers that I actually liked. First, Vienna is a great program if you consider that it is free. However, it is a bit less polished than some of the others. Functionally, it is quite good. Second, NetNewsWire is okay, but for a few annoyances. For instance, it comes with a load of preinstalled feeds, and if I am not mistaken, they need to deleted one at a time. Pair that with an interface that I think could use improvement, and I just can't see myself paying 30 bucks for it.

This brings me to what is my current favorite and the program I may purchase after the free trial is over: NewsMac Pro. It has, I think, an exceptional interface. It really doesn't do much that the others can't, other than communicate with Bloglines, but it just feels right. Here's a screenshot (it makes great use of my widescreen):


I have only one concern with it, and that is its stability, or lack thereof. When I first started using it, it would periodically act strangely and require a relaunch to correct itself. Since I have learned the program better and my mouse-clicking has been less random, I have had better results. Still, it does concern me. Nonetheless, I will probably purchase it for the interface benefits alone.

Unless, of course, one of you know of a better feed reader for Mac OS X.

Most importantly, what I have realised from my testing is that with the right software, RSS feeds can save a person like me oodles of time and grief. Its like the difference between getting the newspaper delivered to my door, and driving 10 miles to pick it up. Furthemore, subscribing to RSS feeds makes it less likely that I'll spend hours just surfing the web aimlessly, which isn't that much fun anyway.

Here is a list of standalone RSS feed readers available for OS X. Please let me know if I have missed any.

• Vienna
• NetNewsWire
• NewsMac Pro
• Newsfire
• Postino
• RSSOwl
• Shrook
• PulpFiction
• NewsFan
• AmphetaDesk
• PixelNews
  

Related Tags: RSS, Feed Readers, OS X, Apple Software

More New Photos

Between school and full-time employment, I haven't had much time for blogging. I did, however, upload several new photos to A. Stark Photo. These are some from a recent trip to Upper Laberge.

Click on Photos for Larger View

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Tony has already posted about this trip and has some great photos here.

I have also uploaded some old photos of my mother's side of the family. They can be viewed here. Some of them are pretty neat.

New Photos

I just uploaded a couple of dozen photos to A. Stark Photo. Some of them are relatively new, and others are old ones that I was too lazy to process until now. They can be found in the following galleries:

• Nature
• Landscapes
• Adventures
• Taffy and Friends
• Friends and Family

I also hope to get some photos of the fall colors that will be around for the next few weeks. There are no guarantees, however, since I will be working full time during this time. Here are a few fall photos from earlier today:

My Blogging Plans

After a much needed break from blogging, I am back. During my time off, I managed to mountain bike several hundred kilometres, do some off-roading, read War and Peace, and most importantly, fulfill some social obligations. Furthermore, I made some decisions about my future on the web.

First of all, I'm going to resume relatively frequent posting here at A. Stark Place. I will use this site for shorter posts about everyday and less serious stuff. After all, where else am I gonna do my cat blogging. To be truthful, too, I appreciate Blogger and its free services, so I might as well make use of them.

Secondly, I have purchased the domain astarkmagazine.com and am building that site using Squarespace. I spent countless hours researching different publishing systems, and chose Squarespace over my second choice, ExpressionEngine, because Squarespace will allow me to set up my new site with a bit less grief. Both systems seem great and are able to produce sites with more complex structures than a simple weblog. This was my main requirement. ExpressionEngine is probably a more powerful program in the right hands, but my knowledge of web design is too puny to make use of its features. In the end, I chose Squarespace because of its ease of use. Its post editor, for instance, is as easy to use as most word processing programs.

This new site will be published in regular issues (probably monthly) containing several articles based on a single theme. I plan for the first issue to be released on Oct. 1. This way of posting should allow me to spend more time on each article. I was growing increasingly annoyed with blogging, because I spent so much time posting daily stuff that I wasn't able to produce anything that I was pleased with. I'm hoping this new site will change all that. As for A. Stark Place, I'm hoping to post to it every few days. I also have a backlog of photos to process from the summer that should be available soon.

Thank you to any of you who haven't totally abandoned this site, despite its being so thoroughly neglected.

What's New at A. Stark Place

I think that an appropriate feature for any blog would be an animated tumbleweed that shows up whenever it has been more than a few days since the last post. In that case, I would need numerous tumbleweeds, some gaunt animals, and maybe even some wandering, delirious people.

Please be assured, I do not intend to quit blogging, but I am looking into publishing options other than Blogger. In fact, I'm planing in a new site with a more complex structure that will read more like a magazine than a personal journal. I hope to have things figured out in the next few weeks. In the meantime, I probably won't be doing much posting here, and will instead concentrate on setting up my new site.

Funny Philosophy

Despite what some of my professors might have to say about it, philosophy is usually pretty boring. I have first hand knowledge of this, since I have two boring philosophy papers due today and another that is well overdue. Yet, here is some philosophy that is actually pretty funny. Really, who needs dialogue when there is soccer?

Hotmail and Humanity

I've had a Hotmail account for at least 8 years now, and I don't plan to get rid of it anytime soon. This may come as a surprise to anyone aware that I have a POP email account on a local server, and that this account is, as you may imagine, much more convenient to use. Yet, there are two reasons why I keep my Hotmail account. The first reason is that some of my friends have so far been incapable of sending mail to my newer and more useful account. The second and more important reason may surprise you, but then again, you may find yourself signing up for your own account after hearing what this reason is.

I am the first to admit that I take my Hotmail account for granted most of the time. After all, it's relatively slow and unreliable, it has ads, and it's part of MSN--Yeck! Yet Hotmail isn't just an ordinary email account, oh no, it's so much more! After all, my POP account never picked me up when I was down.

And down is just what I have been lately, and it all started because of the nasty cold I picked up about ten days ago. It made me feel so awful that I could only muster enough energy for passive activities like watching TV. So, apart from some short, necessary, and often disturbing breaks, TV watching was what I had been doing almost exclusively until yesterday when I started feeling better. Watching that much TV always makes me blue, since most programming is either drab, or base, or shallow, or meaningless, or offensive, or annoying, and often all of the above. Even the news is depressing. So my stock in humanity had fallen to an all-time low when I finally checked my hotmail account yesterday after almost two weeks of neglect.

Who knew? ...almost 200 messages! ...almost all of them for me! Each one bringing me closer to a restored faith in humanity. Each one representing an unique and altruistic personality--someone who really cares. Granted I don't need charity and thus haven't replied to any of them, yet that someone would take the time to write me an email offering their assistance makes my heart swell with pride to have two legs, walk upright, and know how to spell "Coca-Cola". Why on July 3 alone I received offers for free samples of Olay Body Reviver and Jergens Glow, a free Old Navy Gift Card, a $500 dollar Home Shopping Spree, money to start my own eBay business, a free Rolex-quality watch, and some tasty KFC chicken! There was also someone going by the name of "Waiting 4 U" who just wanted to know where I am, presumably so they can make sure I'm okay. I admit that there were also a few that would be inappropriate to discuss here that were nonetheless very flattering, and some that contained unfortunate spelling and usage mistakes, but it is really the thought that counts.

And that was only one day's worth. Elsewhere in the 200 emails were numerous offers for free products, help with my debts, and some Nigerian offers for what seem to be excellent business opportunities. It all just makes me want to put on some of those rubber bracelets like Lance Armstrong and Bono wear, buy a Toyota Prius, and drive around picking up homeless hitchhikers so I can feed them my famous cous-cous salad.

I'm back! And I'm not feeling sorry for myself anymore! And it's all thanks to Hotmail. Get an account and restore your faith in humanity today.

Technorati Tags: Hotmail, humanity, charity

I'm Still Here

I'm sorry that I haven't posted recently, but I have been quite ill and have had several assignments due for school. I am recovering quickly, however, and should have some new stuff up soon.

A Bout of Bad Luck

With all the off-roading I have done in the Yukon, I had never had a flat tire. I had also never not made it to where I wanted to go. That's all changed now, since I recently got three flat tires in one trip. Since I keep only one spare, this meant that I didn't make it to my destination--Michie Lake. The order of events goes something like this:

We punctured our first tire and replaced it, which wasn't that big of a deal.

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Then, I mentioned something about wishing I had some hand cream. That's when things went from bad to worse. We got horribly stuck.

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After much ado, we were able to get out, only to find that we had two more flat tires.

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This was our own fault, since we tried to maneuver this trail in wet conditions, and didn't scout the trail out thoroughly enough. If we had, we would have found the tame detour around the entire nasty section that caused us all this trouble. We might even have some fish in our bellies. I think I'll call this an extremely expensive learning experience. The worst part is that I performed the rescue mission in my friend's Jeep, which must have been a humiliating experience for my Landcruiser.

A parting word of advice that I address mostly to Yukoners, since every trail I drive in the Yukon seems to have this problem: laying down a huge pile of wood parallel to the trail does not make it easier to get through. When your tires slip off the wood, and they will slip off the wood, it is hard on the sidewalls of your tires (as I know all too well), and it makes trails almost impossible to navigate. Moreover, winching gets very dangerous when you are pulling a few tonnes of wet and muddy wood. I know this is done to try to help things, but it should really be illegal, because it makes trails dangerous for everybody from hikers to off-roaders. Muddy sections can sometimes be improved by laying down large numbers of small diameter logs (without nails) perpendicular to the trial, with none being heavier than can be easily moved by hand. Please don't wreck trails by recklessly throwing your old building materials onto the swampy sections. I'm sorry for the rant, but ruining trails is just plain stupid.

When I get new tires, I'll give Michie Lake another go (this time taking the detour). On the way, I think I'll clean up the trail a little so this doesn't happen again. And this time I won't mention hand cream.

Technorati Tags: off-roading, landcruiser, 4x4ing

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Update: Tony has some better photos from the trip here, here, and here.